I Am Pro-Life Because I'm Pro-Choice

I've always been someone who preferred quality over quantity. But in the land where bigger and faster are the default ideals, this is a stance guaranteed to put me at odds with the prevailing norm.

More is always better—regardless of the context.

This seems to be the hand guiding Republican's recent abortion legislation, which ranges from outlawing it entirely to severely reducing the window of availability. It seemingly demands that more lives, not necessarily better ones, is the best path forward.

I not-so-respectfully disagree.

The majority of women who seek abortions have legitimate reasons for doing so. They are financially or emotionally unequipped for parenthood. They were the victim of rape or incest. Their doctors have discovered a condition which makes pregnancy a health risk.

If you happen to be a woman of color, the odds are overwhelming that even bringing a baby to term and giving it up for adoption sentences that child to an unending chain of abusive foster homes and inadequate state-run child care facilities.

The ugly, unavoidable truth is that black and brown babies usually go unadopted.

I haven't heard any of the fetus-loving public servants in the Alabama, Missouri or Georgia state legislatures commit to a program of enforced adoption, so I can only assume they are content to leave any and all unwanted children free to languish in these circumstances. 

Not to mention expanding the government infrastructure necessary to clothe, house and feed them. 

And where's the small government in that? (But that's looking ahead and these are, after all, Republicans, so we mustn't expect too much in the way of long-term vision.)

Even moreso than an aborted embryo, it is my belief that the greatest human tragedy is an unwanted child.

For starters, prisons are full of them. Children lacking committed parents or a stable home are the lifetime recipients of mental and physical abuse from parents who resent them. And that's assuming the kids stick around, which is assuming a lot.

And that's a better way forward? How?

And if you've been paying attention, you're aware of the deplorable state of government-run child care agencies. Underfunded, with fast food levels of turnover and exhausted managers who only want to make their numbers, they exist as child-care entities in name only.

Again, tell me how this is a better way forward. Please.

Ah, but now I'm playing God. And we don't ever do that in America. Ugh-uh.

The aforementioned child-care agencies are one example. Access to health care is another. The NRA-enabled flood of firearms threatening our freedoms yet another.

Then there is the issue of a woman's sovereignty over her body. Women have long argued that if men were the ones who got pregnant, abortion wouldn't be an issue. We'd be free to do whatever we wanted. And we would.

But we are reluctant to extend that freedom to women. And frankly, I don't know why.

I have to feel the vast majority of women who receive abortions do so only after protracted periods of thought and rigorous examination. However committed a prospective father may be, a woman has an intrinsically more intimate relationship with a fetus, and in my eyes is unlikely to make a casual decision regarding it.

Which is exactly how it should be.

Yes, there are women who seek abortions as casually as you or I visit the bathroom. But tell me this: is there anything a portion of a given population doesn't abuse?

No.

The holier-than-thou legislatures in Alabama and Missouri and Georgia and the wild-eyed evangelicals who endorse them love to spout about the sanctity of life. But given the paucity of Republican support for social programs, universal health care, gun control, labor unions, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, one can legitimately question whether they only care about that life while it is in the womb.

Upon leaving it, it is free to be murdered at school, church or work. It is free to receive a substandard education and substandard health care while living in substandard housing as it is confined to a toxic neighborhood based on its skin color.

Or perhaps it is free to mortgage its future in exchange for a college degree. Or struggle to survive in a nation increasingly ravaged by global warming.

Yes, no country is perfect. But before we recklessly commit to bringing every life into the world, shouldn't we provide for the ones already here?